Many teenagers feel that the most important people in their lives are their friends．They believe that their family members, especially their parents, don't know them as well their friends do．In large families, it is often for brothers and sisters to fight with each other and then they can only go to their friends for advice．It is very important for teenagers to have one good friend or many friends．Even when they are not with their friends, they usually spend a lot of time talking among themselves on the phone．This communication is very important in children's growing up, because friend can discuss something difficult to say to their family members.

    However, parents often try to choose their children's friends for them．Some parents may even stop their children from meeting their good friends．The question of “choice” is an interesting one．Have you ever thought of the following questions?

    Who choose your friends?

    Do you choose your friends or your friends choose you?

    Have you got a good friend your parent don't like?

    For years,Hagelin has studied what role scents（气味）play in wild birds' behavior.In 2010,Hagelin heard Jan Straley,a marine biologist,talk about the behavior of whales.Straley mentioned that whales often leap into the air,but nobody knew why.

    The mystery interested Hagelin.So Hagelin asked Straley whether they might leap to smell the air—maybe to locate food or look for danger.Straley replied that it was an interesting idea but there wasn't much evidence that whales have a sense of smell.To investigate the idea further,the two scientists teamed up.

    In the summer of 2011,they set up a post on the coast of southern Alaska.The researchers spent hours monitoring the direction of the whales and of the wind.The whales headed into the wind half of the time.This didn't prove that whales leap to smell,but it suggested that it is possible.

    Meanwhile,other researchers in Alaska were studying a region of the brain called the olfactory bulb（嗅觉球）in whales.Olfaction means the ability to smell.Humans also process smells in the olfactory bulb.

    In identifying a scent,you might think the nose does all of the work.However,the major role of a nose is to draw chemicals on the air and pass them across sensing cells.As chemicals come into contact,they give signals that travel directly to the bulb and then in the brain for further interpretation.

    The researchers discovered that the bulb in a whale was more complex than the one in a human.In whales,this smell-processing center takes up a share of the brain six times larger than it does in humans.

    The brain research suggested that whales probably can smell just as well as people—and possibly better than humans can.It is supposed that a good sense of smell could help them find food more easily.

    However,Hagelin is not sure of that.Now he is planning a new study that will examine whether whales do use the sense of smell to find food.

A

Summer Activities

    Students should read the list with their parents/carers, and select two activities they would like to do. Forms will be available in school and online for them to indicate their choices and return to school. Before choices are finalised, parents/carers will be asked to sign to confirm their child's choices.

    Truman headed home from school, with the homework in mind, a report on beehives (蜂巢). Truman's class had studied bees for three days, so he was ready. But, as his teacher Mrs. Lawrence had explained, to earn an A +，he needed a “new angle”.

    Truman pushed open the front door to find his four-year-old brother, Bryan, sitting on the living room rag, hard at work. Paper towel tubes were all over the floor.

    Bryan quickly stood up. “Truman, help me build a city!”

    “I'd like to,” Truman replied, “but I have to do a report on beehives and ...”

    “Can I help you?” Bryan begged.

    “I don't think so, Bry. Sorry.''

    “I know where there's a beehive.” Bryan smiled.

    “Where?”

    “In the wood pile by the garage.''

    The boys marched to the firewood. Bending down, Bryan pointed out the hive deep inside the pile. Truman carefully removed the hive out.

    “You got it!” Bryan shouted.

    Back in the living room, Truman paced around, turning the fragile hive under his nose. Each cell was a perfect hexagon(六边形). How did the bees fit the cells together so neatly? And how did they make each cell six-sided? Could they count? Lost in thought, his foot came down on something ...

    “Truman! You're mining my city!”

    “Get your stupid tubes out of here，Bryan! I'm trying to…”

    The towel tubes on the floor suddenly reminded him of something. The beehive!

    Looking closer, he noticed the tubes were arranged with one in the middle, surrounded by six others, just like the cells of the hive.

    Just to be sure, he tried five and then seven tubes surrounding the center tubes, but neither way fit. Six was the only number that worked.

    “Bees don't count to six,” he said aloud. “The cells have to be six-sided.

    Truman ran to Bryan and threw his arms around his brother. Bryan, you did it! Now I can build a model beehive with your tubes! I mean — if it's O. K. with you.”

    Two things changed my life:  my mother and a white plastic bike basket. I have thought long and hard about it and it's true. I would be a different person if my mom hadn't turned a silly bicycle accessory into a life lesson I carry with me today.

    My mother and father were united in their way of raising children, but it mostly fell to my mother to actually carry it out. Looking back, I honestly don't know how she did it. Managing the family budget must have been a very hard task, but she made it look effortless. If we complained about not having what another kid did, we'd hear something like, “I don't care what so –and –so got for his birthday, you are not getting a TV in your room a car for your birthday a lsvish sweet 16 party.” We had to earn our allowance by doing chores around the house. I can still remember how long it took to polish the legs of our coffee table. My brothers can no doubt remember hours spent cleaning the house .Like the two little girls growing up at the White House, we made our own beds (no one left the house until that was done)and picked up after ourselves. We had to keep track of our belongings, and if something was lost, it was not replaced.

It was summer and ,one day ,my mother drove me to the bike shop to get a tire fixed—and there it was in the window, White, shiny, plastic and decorated with flowers ,the basket winked at me and I knew —-I knew—I had to have it.

    “It's beautiful,” my mother said when I pointed it out to her,” What a neat basket.”

    I tried to hold off at first, I played it cool for a short while. But then I guess I couldn't at and it any longer: “Mom, please can I please, please get it? I'll do extra chores for as long as you say, I'll do anything, but I need that basket, I love that basket. Please, Mom. Please?”

    I was desperate.

    “You know,” she said, gently rubbing my back while we both stared at what I believes was the coolest thing ever,” If you save up you could buy this yourself.”

“By the time I make enough it'll be gone!”

    “Maybe Roger here could hold it for you,” she smiled at Roger, the bike guy.

    “He can't hold it for that long, Mom .Someone else will buy it .Please, Mom, Please?”

    “There might be another way,” she said.

    And so our paying plan unfolded. My mother bought the beautiful basket and put it safely in some hiding place I couldn't find. Each week I eagerly counted my growing saving increased by extra work here and there (washing the car ,helping my mother make dinner, delivering or collecting things on my bike that already looked naked without the basket in front).And then ,weeks later ,I counted ,re-counted and jumped for joy. Oh, happy day! I made it! I finally had the exact amount we'd agreed upon….

    Days later the unthinkable happened. A neighborhood girl I'd played with millions of times appeared with the exact same basket fixed to her shiny, new bike that already had all the bells and whistles. I rode hard and fast home to tell my mother about this disaster. This horrible turn of events.

    And then came the lesson. I've taken with me through my life:” Honey, Your basket is extra-special,” Mom said, gently wiping away my hot tears.” Your basket is special because you paid for it yourself.”

    Chinese people are, quite rightly, proud of their food. However, when foreigners like Britons and Americans think of Chinese food, their impression of it is different to what you might think.

    Growing up in the UK, the Chinese food I was used to eating was food I now recognize as being from Guangdong. For example, a typical dish I would order would be pork in sweet and sour sauce, probably with some rice and spring rolls on the side. This is the type of food we generally eat because most Chinese immigrants(移民) to the UK have come from Guangdong. You can tell, because when most British people try to copy the sound of Chinese, they actually copy the sound of Guangdong people—hearing the real Putonghua is sometimes a shock to British people who have grown up thinking it sounds completely different!

    British attitudes to Chinese food may be changing, though. Chinese-American chef Ken Hom has been on British TV for 30 years, and he told BBC Food: "Chinese food at the beginning of the 80s (in the UK) was sweet and sour pork, mainly. Most Brits had the unchangeable view of Chinese food. Now you are seeing more local Chinese food from Sichuan, Hunan and other areas of China. It is no longer just Guangdong food." Similarly, to most Americans, Chinese food doesn't go too far past orange chicken and fortune cookies, but more Chinese local dishes are becoming successful, especially in big cities like New York.

    Attitudes have not quite changed completely, though. Many foreigners who live in China will be familiar with this question from a relative back at home: "Have they given you dog yet?" Yes, perhaps because people still know too little about Chinese culture, many people believe that Chinese people love to eat dog meat. And of course, some people do eat dogs, which to Americans is like "eating a member of one's family" according to Vision Times. Also, Chinese people eat many other things people in the West do not—chicken claws, duck heads and some animals' organs.

    But what do foreigners think when they come to China and taste real Chinese food? You'll be glad to know that in my experience, the impressions have been very good.